Judge grants HTC request to sever, transfer Apple suit to Delaware

A Miami district court judge on Tuesday granted HTC's request to sever Apple's claims against the Taiwanese smartphone maker from an ongoing Motorola Mobility v. Apple case and move the suit to a Delaware court.

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Judge Robert N. Scola severed and transferred HTC from the 2010 Motorola Mobility v. Apple suit nearly three months after the Taiwan-based company was brought into the case as a defendant against Apple counterclaims of six patents, reports FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller.

The same judge first consolidated the two Apple lawsuits in May, but has decided to grant HTC's request based on a 2011 patent reform bill. Judge Scola cited the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) which was instituted to thwart so-called patent trolls by raising the standard for joinders, or the practice of suing multiple defendants in one case in the same district. While Apple is a practicing company with owned patents and not a patent troll, the bill still applies to the claims asserted in Florida.

Moving over as part of the transfer are the six asserted Apple patents from the original consolidation as well as two HP patents HTC purchased to help fight its Southern Florida case.

Mueller notes the real winner in the transfer may be Motorola, and by proxy Google, as Apple's Florida suit against HTC was seen as a tactic to slow down proceedings. Motorola went so far as to accuse Apple of "procedural gamesmanship" with its May joinder request.

When HTC was brought into the Florida suit, the court was on track for a mid-2014 trial date, but that schedule may be bumped up due to the transfer to Delaware. Motorola wanted a faster decision as the company is asserting six purportedly strong patents against the iPhone maker and in January added an additional six patent claims to the mix.

HTC is also battling Apple through complaints with the U.S. International Trade Commission, though the Taiwanese company has seen little success and recently withdrew a critical patent in one of the cases.

This looks like both a planned and a proverbial "F.U." to their partners.

First they withdrew the only patent that would effect H.T.C. Personally and are now only running on Google and ASC "I think" patents. Then they continue the suit and move the venue. I'm usually pretty quick, but I don't see what's coming. There is a plan here though.

The only thing that does make sense is that they don't have their own operating system. So what ever they are doing is a false move lest they expose their "partners", and not themselves, to risk.

This looks like both a planned and a proverbial "F.U." to their partners.
First they withdrew the only patent that would effect H.T.C. Personally and are now only running on Google and ASC "I think" patents. Then they continue the suit and move the venue. I'm usually pretty quick, but I don't see what's coming. There is a plan here though.
The only thing that does make sense is that they don't have their own operating system. So what ever they are doing is a false move lest they expose their "partners", and not themselves, to risk.

There's also a strategic issue. HTC apparently thinks that their chances are better on their own than being tied to Motorola/Google. If they thought that Motorola/Google had a strong case, there would have been less reason to sever.

There's also a strategic issue. HTC apparently thinks that their chances are better on their own than being tied to Motorola/Google. If they thought that Motorola/Google had a strong case, there would have been less reason to sever.

According to Mueller the Delaware court hasn't been as friendly to Apple's filings, and thus benefits HTC to be heard there. Mueller went on to say that he thinks Apple's goal in trying to combine the HTC and Moto in Miami cases was to delay Motorola's IP claims into 2014. With HTC's case now severed and moving to Delaware it may be to Motorola's advantage, allowing their claims against Apple to move along faster.

"...the most likely beneficiary is Google subsidiary Motorola Mobility, which previously accused Apple of "gamesmanship" because of its decision to sue HTC in Florida in order to inflate the overall case and slow things down. I think Motorola is right that that's what Apple primarily intended to achieve..."

According to Mueller the Delaware court hasn't been as friendly to Apple's filings, and thus benefits HTC to be heard there. Mueller went on to say that he thinks Apple's goal in trying to combine the HTC and Moto in Miami cases was to delay Motorola's IP claims into 2014. With HTC's case now severed and moving to Delaware it may be to Motorola's advantage, allowing their claims against Apple to move along faster.

"...the most likely beneficiary is Google subsidiary Motorola Mobility, which previously accused Apple of "gamesmanship" because of its decision to sue HTC in Florida in order to inflate the overall case and slow things down. I think Motorola is right that that's what Apple primarily intended to achieve..."

Yes, I read that - but it doesn't negate anything I said.

If HTC felt that they were likely to win while paired with MotoGoogle, there would have been no reason to change.

I really can't understand such statements. Has anyone claiming such thing tried any of recent HTCs or Samsungs. They are world apart from iPhone and besides the fact you can make calls on both not much else is similar. I have HTC One X and iPhone 4, not even remotely similar.

I really can't understand such statements. Has anyone claiming such thing tried any of recent HTCs or Samsungs. They are world apart from iPhone and besides the fact you can make calls on both not much else is similar. I have HTC One X and iPhone 4, not even remotely similar.

Mea culpa. That was a real lame attempt at humor. And you're right; HTC makes very different phones compared to the iPhone. I have seen the, hmm forgot the model, but a HTC phone and it looked impressive. The guy was happy with it.